12/03/2018

Wintery weather expands SUV popularity into February

Data from Auto Trader, the UK's largest marketplace for used and new cars, revealed that the 2016 Ford Ka (petrol manual) was on average the fastest selling used car in February, taking an average of just 17 days to leave forecourts.

Whilst a nippy hatchback may have topped the national top 10 list last month, as the UK shivered in wintery weather conditions, second, third and fourth place were taken by hardy SUVs. Both the 2015 Audi Q5 (diesel automatic) and the 2015 Vauxhall Antara (diesel manual) took an average of 19 days to sell in February, whilst the 2011 Audi Q5 (diesel manual) took a respectable 20.

Defying the trends in the new car market, February was another solid month for used diesels, making up seven of the national top 10. A diesel also took the top spot in three of the thirteen regions and countries tracked: North West (2016 Hyundai Tucson - diesel manual – 19 days), Wales (2017 Nissan Qashqai – diesel manual – 24 days) and Northern Ireland (2017 VW Golf – diesel manual – 37 days).

Hatchbacks were outnumbered nationally, but at a regional/country level, they were the clear winners, recording the fastest turn of sale in all but one region. In fact, so popular was the hatchback in the West Midlands, the South West, Yorkshire and Northern Ireland last month, no other body type made it onto their respective top 10s.

Karolina Edwards-Smajda, Auto Trader retailer & consumer products director, said, 'The year ahead holds some exciting opportunities for retailers, and finance will play an increasingly important role in driving growth, particularly within the used car market. As we can see from our data, the most popular second-hand cars are three to four years old. Because of finance, these younger, more desirable, but more expensive cars are becoming more accessible to consumers who increasingly view cost as a monthly payment, not as a total price. Making finance easier to understand, and easier to navigate, will really help retailers stand out in today's competitive market.'

Hitting targets will always be determined by how quickly a retailer can turn their stock around and using data is the key to speeding it up. Users of i-Control, Auto Trader's data management solution, took an average of just 31 days to sell a car in February, compared to a market average of 69 - 55% faster than those that don't use the data management tool.

Karolina continued, 'It's great to see such a low average turn of sale on a national level, but looking at a more granular level, we can see that some vehicles are taking over 40 or 50 days to sell. As every retailer knows, the longer a car sits on a forecourt the smaller the profit margin. Using data to complement your own expertise to identify and stock the most desirable cars in your area can make all the difference between 70 days and 20.'

The UK's Top 10 Fastest Selling Used Cars in February 2018:

Rank Description Average Days to Sell Average Price Position Average Retail Price

1 2016 Ford Ka Hatchback Petrol Manual 17 99.03% £6,755

2 2015 Audi Q5 SUV Diesel Automatic 19 98.22% £24,056

3 2015 Vauxhall Antara SUV Diesel Manual 19 99.51% £9,782

4 2011 Audi Q5 SUV Diesel Manual 20 100.15% £14,008

5 2011 Peugeot 3008 Hatchback Diesel Automatic 21 97.90% £5,466

6 2015 Renault Captur Hatchback Diesel Automatic 22 99.17% £10,708

7 2015 Hyundai ix35 Estate Petrol Manual 22 99.57% £11,371

8 2015 Volvo XC90 Estate Diesel Automatic 22 100.49% £35,327

9 2015 Mazda CX-5 SUV Diesel Manual 23 98.73% £14,964

10 2015 Ford Focus Hatchback Petrol Automatic 23 101.72% £10,445